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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

One of the best features of Autodesk’s Impression, is the ability to update the geometry of the drawing.In this Impression Tip, we will discuss how to update the drawings linework, instantly (or pretty close to it) and keep the rendering styles intact.Try redoing a drawing by hand!

You started off with a great CAD drawing.You imported it into Impression and you used FILL STYLES to render it.It looks great, your best work ever.BUT!!!!The client called, and needs the drawing changed, for whatever reason.Does it really matter why?Nope, you have to deliver.Impression can do that.

I recommend saving your first file and working from a copy of it.That way, when your client (or boss as it often is) changes his (or her) mind you haven’t lost a thing.Anyway, just update the cad file and your done.I know, not much of a tip.How do you UPDATE the cad geometry?

Go to the FILE pulldown menu item.Go to the UPDATE CAD GEOMETRY button and click it.Now you have a choice.You can pick from these three options: entire file, sketches, or layers.

Picking the entire file option will update, well, the entire file.You might not want that, so you have more options.The sketches option provides a list of the different line work and annotations that are available in the drawing file.This list will also include blocks.The layers option will provide a list of the layers.Choose the layers you want to reload.

A dialog box will appear, regardless of the method you choose, that will provide a list of the available items to pick from.Choose wisely!

If you made your drawing using layer styles, and each layer has a style, then the update should go pretty smoothly with very little re-doing of anything.Assuming that is that the cad linework was done with closed polylines.If you rendered your Impression file using fills, then again, assuming you have anchor points for those fills in every proper spot, then you will have little rework to do.Now, please understand that having this happen, meaning having little to no work to do, is a rare thing.Typically the lines move enough so that several of the anchor points are not in the right place.That’s ok, because it won’t be as if you have to redo the entire drawing!

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About Me

Brian Benton is a Senior Engineering Technician, CAD Service
Provider, trainer, technical writer and blogger. He has over 20 years of
experience in various design fields (Mechanical, Structural, Civil, Survey,
Marine, Environmental), has a degree in Design Drafting and is well versed in
many design software packages (CAD, GIS, Graphics). He is Cadalyst Magazine’s Tip Patroller and
writer, formerly the AUGI HotNews Production Manager, Sybex Mastering AutoCAD
contributing author, and Infinite Skills AutoCAD training video author as well
as a member of the Autodesk Expert Elite Program. You can find Brian at his website at cadablog.com.